In case this information has not been posted, Newegg dropped the price of the A-DATA 32G card to $69.99 US. When I receive my recently ordered Zune 4G, I will be making this mod. Cannot take the chance of problems with the mod which would leave me without a DAP.

All of the bits and pieces for my flash-based Mini finally came in, and I'm happy to say I was quite successful. I used the 32gb A-Data card available for $70 at NewEgg. I also installed a $10 (shipped) replacement battery, and put it all into a green 2nd gen Mini with a weak battery. The Mini was about $30 shipped, but I had to keep an eye out for a few days to find a reasonable price on one.

A few notes:

- The existing 4gb micro drive was enclosed in a rubber boot. I decided to wrap the rubber boot around the new CF card, then used a strip of black tape to secure the boot to the card, as the card was thinner than the microdrive was.

- Be cautious putting the thing back together. I managed to get some kind of gunk on the inside of the screen glass, and I couldn't get it completely wiped off. It's annoying.

- When you get it all back together, if the click wheel doesn't work... REMEMBER TO TURN OFF THE HOLD SWITCH! I was convinced I had screwed up somehow, so I tore the whole thing apart again, and the second time putting it together I got the gunk on the screen as mentioned above. Turns out I just didn't look at the switch. Stupid me.

- Even if your battery is OK, I'd spend the $10 or so to get a replacement one. Since you're going to have it all torn apart, might as well take the opportunity to put a fresh one in.

All in all, it was quite easy. Not counting me needing to take it part a second time due to my stupidity, it took maybe 30 minutes total.

For those in the uk theres a few ipod minis going on buy it now (sellers name is bargain clear out agent) on ebay at around the £25.00 mark. States they might need a new battery but seems prices might be dropping again. Nice easy mod to do, hell if I can do it anyone can!

One doesn't need a fast writing speed for this mod. Sure it may take awhile to fill up 32 gigs worth of music all at once but this is true for any large sized drive. For me the AData 32 gig CF Card was only a tad bit slower then the default 6 gig hd that my Ipod Mini 2nd gen originally came with. This does not affect Ipod Mini playback or browsing at all nor will anyone notice slow transfer speeds during small song transfers onto the Ipod Mini. It's just much better to get the AData card for price and reliability.

I think cheaper is better. The majority of the time you should be using this to play music. I don't think it's worth the extra money to save a little time when filling the iPod. Sure it takes awhile, but it will take awhile to copy 32GB via USB no matter what. In fact, I suspect these faster CF cards have little or no impact on the transfer speed on USB. The faster CF cards are designed with cameras in mind. Digital SLRs can write to CF cards much much faster then a USB transfer can.

We're all entitled to our opinions of course

So for balances sake...

Get the A-Data cards. They are cheaper and you won't notice any benefit by buying the more expensive cards.

For what it's worth, I did by the faster transcend card, and don't think it was worth the price difference.

I just modded a Cowon X5 by putting an A-Data 32GB Compact flash card with an 1.8inch IDE adapter in there!

You'll be reading, not writing to the drive most of the time so write times aren't that important. I found it to be a little slower than a hard disk for writing, but when it comes to reading, it is MUCH faster than a hard disk.

I just modded a Cowon X5 by putting an A-Data 32GB Compact flash card with an 1.8inch IDE adapter in there!

You'll be reading, not writing to the drive most of the time so write times aren't that important. I found it to be a little slower than a hard disk for writing, but when it comes to reading, it is MUCH faster than a hard disk.